Red blood cells (erythrocytes) are essential for the transport of oxygen through the body. An understanding of the regulation of red blood cell production, called erythropoiesis, is important for the treatment of patients in a variety of clinical situations. Patients that are scheduled for elective surgery, such as hip or transplant surgery, can be prescribed an erythropoiesis stimulating agent (ESA) to compensate for the expected loss of blood, thus obviating the need for allogenic blood transfusions by raising the patient's hematocrit and/or hemoglobin concentration to a desired range at the predetermined time, in expectation of the surgery. Erythropoiesis stimulating agents (ESAs), including recombinant human erythropoietin, exert hematological effects analogous to the hormone erythropoietin (EPO), which is released into the blood stream by the kidneys based on a negative feedback mechanism that reacts to the partial pressure of oxygen in the blood. ESA treatment regimens are also prescribed for patients who suffer from insufficient erythropoiesis, such as cancer patients recovering from the effects of chemotherapy, and chronic kidney disease patients whose kidneys can no longer produce sufficient amounts of EPO. The dose and frequency of administration of an ESA treatment regimen are often determined based on the prior experience of the physician and on established guidelines, because predictive models of erythropoiesis under an ESA treatment regimen are not readily available.
Therefore, there is a need for a reliable predictive model of erythropoiesis under various ESA treatment regimens.